31 Indian Armoured Division (1942

27 September 2016 [10 INDIAN MOTOR BRIGADE (1942 – 43)]

th 10 Indian Motor Brigade (1)

Headquarters, 10th Indian Motor Brigade Group

Skinner’s Horse (1st Duke of York’s Own) (2) The Central India Horse (21st King George V’s Own Horse) (3) The Guides Cavalry (10th Queen Victoria’s Own Frontier Force (4)

5th (Vaughan’s) Bn. 13th Frontier Force Rifles 3rd (Rattray’s Sikhs) Bn. 11th Sikh Regiment (5)

402nd Field Squadron, Royal Bombay Sappers and Miners

10th Indian Motor Brigade Signal Squadron, Indian Corps of Signals

10th Indian Motor Brigade Troops Transport Company, Royal Indian Army Service Corps

5th Indian Light Field Ambulance, Indian Army Medical Corps

10th Indian Motor Brigade Ordnance Company, Indian Army Ordnance Corps

114th Indian Field Post Office, Indian General Service Corps

©www.BritishMilitaryH istory.co.uk Page 1

27 September 2016 [10 INDIAN MOTOR BRIGADE (1942 – 43)]

NOTES:

1. The 10th Indian Motor Brigade was formed in Egypt in March 1942, with the intention of serving with the British 10th Armoured Division. Brigadier (Temporary) Harold REDMAN, p.s.c., commanded the brigade upon its formation, and he assumed command on 31 March 1942. A Regular Army officer born in 1899, Brigadier REDMAN had seen service in the First World War in France and Belgium with the Royal Artillery. Between the wars, he served in Waziristan, and on the North-West Frontier with the 1st Bn. The King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, to which he transferred in February 1929. He passed the Staff Course at Camberley and was a qualified 1st Class interpreter in French. He commenced the war serving in the War Office, before raising the 7th Bn. of his regiment in July 1940. In February 1941, he assumed command of the 151st Infantry Brigade, and went with that formation to Egypt. REDMAN became the Brigadier General Staff of 8th Army in December 1941, but he was relieved of his appointment on 27 March 1942. He then assumed command of this brigade. He left command of this brigade on 1 March 1943, on being posted as Secretary to the Combined Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In August 1944, he was appointed the deputy commander of the French Military Mission in the rank of Major General, eventually retiring in September 1958 after three years as Governor-General of Gibraltar as Lieutenant General Sir Harold REDMAN, K.C.B., C.B.E., p.s.c. The brigade comprised three cavalry regiments of the British Indian Army, but as there was a shortage of tanks in the Middle East and India, they became motorised units as opposed to armoured regiments. The brigade was under the command of the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division for a short period of time from June until September 1942, when the brigade was ordered to Persia (Iran). Initially, it came under command of the 10th Army, but in January 1943, it came under command of the 12th Indian Infantry Division (a static unit in Persia). Brigadier (Acting) Frank McCALLUM, O.B.E., M.C., p.s.c. replaced REDMAN in command of this brigade with effect from 2 March 1943. He was a Regular officer in the British Indian Army, who joined the 1st Bn. 9th Gurkha Rifles in March 1919. He served in Waziristan, where he was awarded the Military Cross in June 1923, and as Brigade Major of the Razmak Brigade, for which he was made an O.B.E.. He went to Iraq as the G.S.O. 1 of the 8th Indian Infantry Division, from which he was promoted to command this brigade. On 1 July 1943, the brigade was redesignated at the 60th Indian Infantry Brigade, with Brigadier McCALLUM remaining in command until July 1945. Brigadier McCULLUM returned to India, retiring in 1948 after a spell as Director of Staff Duties of the new Pakistan Army. The brigade remained in Persia, Lebanon and Iraq until early 1946, when it returned to India to disband. 2. Skinner’s Horse was a Regular Cavalry regiment in the pre-war Indian Army. It came under command of this brigade in April1942, and remained through the transition to the 60th Indian Infantry Brigade, apart from the period between April and June 1943. 3. This regiment served with this brigade from March 1942 until July 1943, except between January and June 1943. It later became a reconnaissance regiment in Italy. 4. This regiment joined this brigade on 24 May 1942, and left on 24 June of the same year. 5. This infantry battalion came under command of this brigade in November 1942, and passed to the command of the 60th Indian Infantry Brigade. In April 1943, a third infantry battalion came under command, namely: 4th (Prince of Wales’s Own) Bn. 8th Punjab Regiment

27 September 2016 [10 INDIAN MOTOR BRIGADE (1942 – 43)]

SOURCES:

H.M.S.O. Paiforce – The Official Story of the Persia and Iraq Command 1941-46 (London, H.M.S.O., 1948) KEMPTON Chris ‘Loyalty and Honour’ – The Indian Army September 1939 – August 1947 Part I Divisions – Part II Brigades – Part III (Milton Keynes: Military Press, 2003) [ISBN 0-85420-228-5] LYMAN, Robert, Iraq 1941 – the battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad (Oxford, Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2006) [ISBN 1 84176 991 6] LYMAN, Robert First Victory – Britain’s Forgotten Struggle in the Middle East, 1941 (London, Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2006) [ISBN 978-1-84529-108-2] PAL, Dr. Dharm Campaign in Western Asia, Official History of the Indian Armed Forces in the Second World War, 1939- 1945. (Delhi, Combined Inter-Services Historical Section, 1957 – Reprinted by: The Pentagon Press, 2012). [ISBN Set 978-81-8274-660-2] WARNER, Geoffrey Iraq and Syria 1941 (London, Davis-Poynter Limited, 1974) [ISBN 0 7067 0139 9]